tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63891633458011594122018-03-07T15:37:06.454-08:00Epyllio BusinessChikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comBlogger1000125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-81662636920066285562012-09-27T05:00:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.755-07:00What To Think About As A Sweat Equity PartnerI have found an operating agreement is an absolute necessity for small enterprises, particularly LLC's with multiple members and similar partnerships.<br /><br />The % of ownership can be determined by a financial contribution, or a donation of effort in the form of hours at zero cost to the company, carefully accounted at an agreed upon rate and yielding a resulting ownership share, or some other means of valuing an investment in the firm. <br /><br />Yet a third factor to consider in specifying the ownership % is the long term role of each partner in the operation of the firm. <br /><br />An operating agreement is a separate document, not controlled or required by the state or the federal government but very important to your company. It should be a simple, straightforward document you and your prospective partner(s) can draft yourselves, addressing such matters as % of ownership, how revenue will be distributed and other general matters, as well as who can commit the company in the form of credit cards, who signs checks on the company account and other administrative matters. Buying out a partner should also be covered as well as adding new members if the need arises down the road. <br /><br />I have seen many enterprises fail or go through terrifically hard times due to lack of an operating agreement. The parties should sign it after a review by a lawyer. It should then be notarized and made an official part of the company file. <br /><br />You can download a free, generic operating agreement with instructions from the second vertical Box Net cube in the left margin of the below site. You can feel free to borrow from the sample or supplement it as you see fit to make it your own. It is fairly comprehensive in order to cover most business situations and there may be elements of the example you feel are not necessary. <br /><br />The role of the individual in the on-going operation of the company is a major factor to consider in the ownership equation as well as initial financial or labor contributions. The operating agreement process is the way to achieve equity and commitment among the parties. <br />&nbsp; <br /><a href="http://www.smalltofeds.com/" target="_blank">SmallToFeds</a> <br />&nbsp; <br />Courtesy Of Kenneth Larson, SCORE MentorChikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-16489259078452354812012-09-25T06:52:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.655-07:00One of the Best Things you Can do for Your Employees – and for Yourself<span lang="EN"><div align="LEFT" dir="LTR">Do you know most of us will live approximately 13 to 15 years past what has traditionally been considered retirement age? The U.S. Centers for Disease Control says the average American male lives to 76 and the average American woman to 80. Experts estimate we’ll need 70 to 90 percent of our preretirement income to maintain our current standard of living when we stop working. And yet few of us are saving enough for retirement. </div><br /> Part of the problem is that according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, 72 percent of workers at small companies (companies with less than 100 employees) have no employer-sponsored retirement plan available to them. By starting a retirement savings plan, you will help your employees save for the future, help you attract and retain qualified employees and even gain significant tax advantages for your business and your employees. All while helping you secure your own retirement. <br /> <br /><div align="LEFT" dir="LTR">Starting a retirement savings plan can be relatively easy and inexpensive:</div><ul><li>Today small businesses can offer a retirement plan for about what we pay per month for cable television – even if you have just a handful of employees. </li><li>Business owners can also take advantage of a tax credit for the costs of setting up a retirement plan. The credit equals 50 percent of the cost to set up and administer the plan up to a maximum of $500 per year for each of the first three years of the plan. </li><li>Employee contributions are deductible from the employer’s income and employee contributions (other than Roth contributions) are not taxed until distributed to the employee. Money in the plan grows tax-free. </li><li>A plan can be put in place in less than a week and will only require about an hour a month of on-line maintenance time. And you don’t have to set up an employee match unless you choose to do so.</li></ul>Participation in a 401(k) plan continues to be one of the most efficient ways to help employees save for retirement. As you evaluate your company benefits this fall, it might just be time to consider a 401(k) plan for your business. </span>Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-72042726086544908112012-09-24T04:30:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.728-07:00Mompreneur vs Professional Business WomanBelow are two different viewpoints on the difference between Mompreneur vs professional business woman.&nbsp; Feel free to add your own thoughts as a comment .....<br /><br />======================<br /><br />Mumpreneur must be a British thing, as when I Googled it most of the sites were .uk. Never heard the term here in the states and I find it a bit derogatory. I've owned a recruiting business for over twenty-five years and prior to that was a free-lance graphic designer before taking a job as a recruiter. I was a single mom and worked from home, and I would have been horrified to be singled out as a mumpreneur. I was as viable a solopreneur or freelancer as any man with or without children, a Professional Woman with clients, deadlines, meetings, billings and taxes owed. <br /><br />If one runs a legitimate business, whatever that business is, and it is successful, turns a profit, and pays taxes to the government, then you are a Professional Woman. If you run a Cottage Industry, you are still a business woman, but it's a smaller endeavor, selling more one of a kinds, or handmade items to a smaller audience. But that is a legitimate business too. <br /><br />I take umbrage with that term. Are the many women on Etsy.com mumpreneurs? I doubt they would see themselves that way. And that is a highly successful international site with handmade goods from all over the world from small firms, individuals or companies that often work out their homes. They see themselves as businesses. <br /><br />A Professional Woman is known by her code of ethics, business practices, decorum and the ability to deliver on time and within budget what she promises. Just like any Professional Man. They are one and the same. <br /><br />Where did this term originate and who is using it? Distasteful to me. As a woman I would be embarrassed to say it out loud. Demeaning. <br /><br />Courtesy of <a href="http://www.croshak.com/" target="_blank">Cheryl Roshak</a><br /><br />=======================<br /><br />I think it depends on who you ask- My site is called "Mompreneur Mogul". <br /><br />It's not derogatory. It's not degrading. <br /><br />Anyone who is a mother knows that the term is a total gift. Period.<br /><br />Some women flip out about it - I think that's silly. ( of course that is my opinion I know other women get upset if you call them mommy, or in this case mompreneur- I don't. <br /><br />And as far a gender discrimination I don't see how it applies in any way. <br /><br />To me a Mompreneur is obviously a mother and she is a professional woman. <br /><br />Even if she never had a business just being a mom would make her professional. Anyone who is not a mom should try it for 24 hours. Most would come out crying. Moms are professional believe me. <br /><br />As a matter of fact I think it's funny at times that people who have racked up degrees and are in high positions in companies ( some not all) look down on a mother. Funny if it wasn't for theirs they wouldn't even be in that company. <br /><br />It's one of the most challenging most rewarding jobs on the planet. Nothing compares really. <br /><br />I've performed on stage in front of 40,000 people. I shook the hands of Steve Wynn. Chuck Schwab, Michael McDonald, Larry The Cable Guy and others. I've toured the world and been in the company of the elite and the most poor- I've written a book, been on tv, run my blog and business and I love my business however being a mom beats it all. <br /><br />Simply put a Mompreneur is a woman with a business who also has children and she is profesional. <br /><br />Oh and there is no shame in my name ;) None whatsoever- <br /><br />Courtesy of <a href="http://www.mompreneurmogul.com/" target="_blank">Lisa Cash Hanson</a><br /><br />===========================<br /><br />I think mumpreneurs are defined as mothers with children who run a business, usually from home and this business is often web-based, allowing flexibility for childcare arrangements. In my experience of it, mumpreneurs also often create products and services for pregnancy, babies, children and childcare once they see the need for it after going through these stages themselves. <br /><br />A professional woman may have her own business, but she is less likely to be based at home with children within this business, having opened her own offices, salons or consulting rooms If she does not have her own business, she is likely to have a senior role in a government or publicly-listed company. <br /><br />The overlap is that they both work incredibly hard!&nbsp; And happen to be women.Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-45746891482332794992012-09-20T04:30:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.692-07:00Tips To Being A Successful Small BusinessThere are a variety of reasons whey small businesses fail. After working with hundreds of small business through the years here are a few that RISE TO THE TOP. <br /><br />NO MARKETING PLAN <br /><br />NO MARKETING CAMPAIGNS <br /><br />NOT TESTING MARKETING EFFORTS <br /><br />NOT MEASURING MARKETING EFFORTS <br /><br />Too many business owners look at marketing as an EXPENSE when it's actually one of the best INVESTMENTS you can make for your business! <br /><br />You can't open the doors of your business and expect customers to find you. I have seen businesses spend tens of thousands of dollars on a new retail location and/or to build a new shinny website and then EXPECT customers to find them. You can have the best website in the world but if no one knows about it or can't find it how will increase sales? <br /><br />ATTENTION ALL BUSINESS OWNERS!<br /><br />Marketing is ONLY a Expense if you are doing it incorrectly! Maintain active marketing campaigns and make sure you can MEASURE all of your marketing efforts. Don't just throw money at your marketing and think its going to work itself out. Test your marketing and advertising and measure everything. Large corporations can afford to throw money at marketing they can't measure but most small businesses can't afford this.<br /><br />Successful businesses only risk a small amount in testing an idea with a high potential return .... e.g.&nbsp;adwords to get traffic to a squeeze page or survey .... then only do they create the product if the test indicates it is profitable else they fail quickly. They only take major risks like renting a shop or hiring staff when they have a proven idea that is cashflowing well.&nbsp; Successful businesses plough 10% of turnover into building the business and another 10% into personal &amp; professional development of manager &amp; staff. <br /><br /><br />Most startups fail in year 1 by developing a product before discovering there is a market for it .... and taking large risks like opening a store for low returns (physical goods have a margin of 10-20%) or risking their home for a loan. <br /><br />Year 2 taxation is the biggest killer of startups because employees are used to spending all their income once they have it.&nbsp; But when switching to a business taxes are not due till the end of the year. Forgetting to pay themselves first (instead of last) compounds the issue.<br /><br />Year 3 loss of focus causes problems because too many business owners use a business plan as just a tool to get money from friends, family &amp; fools instead of as a working guide. <br /><br />Year 4 + the biggest traps include failure to do what only you can do &amp; delegate the rest resulting in burnout. <br /><br />Business owners are outsiders in society because they have not accepted the social conditioning of working hard for others for 40+ years in the hope of getting a pension of less than half of what was not enough to support your life while working.&nbsp;&nbsp; So they need a support network from successful business people. <br /><br />A business plan is needed based on the owner's requirement for funding his desired lifestyle *10 ... to give the minimum target profit level of the business. <br /><br />The successful people/businesses have different accounts and budgets for asset building 10%, education 10%, contribution 10%, play10%, long term saving (eg for new car) 5%, savings/debt reduction 5%, necessities 50%.&nbsp; In other words, budget all your expenses, needs, and desires and stick to it.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br /><br />Above is not a "Does It All" recipe for business success but should at least give you a few tasty dishes to sic your teeth into.Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-1497515533420918232012-09-17T18:43:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.645-07:00Venture Lab - Technology Entrepreneurship Course<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sign up for the Fall courses on Venture Lab!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Classes include:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://venture-lab.org/creativity" target="_blank">Tina Seelig's Crash Course on Creativity</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://venture-lab.org/finance" target="_blank">Kay Giesecke on Finance</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://venture-lab.org/education" target="_blank">Paul Kim on Designing a New Learning Environment</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://venture-lab.org/advanced_venture" target="_blank">Clint Korver on Startup Boards: Advanced Entrepreneurship</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In preparing for the next set of Fall courses, we've been analyzing some of the data from the <a href="http://venture-lab.org/" target="_blank">Spring 2012 Technology Entrepreneurship course on Venture Lab</a>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">We looked at the average team scores at the end of the course (averaging across all 3 scores) for teams that received three feedback reports. We also did some normalization.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The first insight is that teams with a mentor scored significantly higher.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oERHPLdDg8A/UFfQDnxd-AI/AAAAAAAAeJY/Qg_zSJWTSeM/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-17+at+6.12.06+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="98" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oERHPLdDg8A/UFfQDnxd-AI/AAAAAAAAeJY/Qg_zSJWTSeM/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-09-17+at+6.12.06+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The second insight was that teams from the US were not the top scoring. Teams from Russia and India did quite well.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J9mor6mDrSk/UFfQD3UhF0I/AAAAAAAAeJg/pZgdLV4R2MI/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-17+at+6.12.21+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J9mor6mDrSk/UFfQD3UhF0I/AAAAAAAAeJg/pZgdLV4R2MI/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-09-17+at+6.12.21+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />Out of the top 10 teams in the course, they were from a variety of regions.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e9nAH3yhTo8/UFfQEPEGSsI/AAAAAAAAeJo/WVqhRXDFNW8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-17+at+6.12.30+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="307" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e9nAH3yhTo8/UFfQEPEGSsI/AAAAAAAAeJo/WVqhRXDFNW8/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-09-17+at+6.12.30+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">It was also not the case that younger individuals did particularly better. I was especially happy to see that the over 50 crowd did quite well as did the youngest 21-25 year old group. These were scored by the age of the team lead.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_xk-WZXclhQ/UFfQEx7rYjI/AAAAAAAAeJw/hyPEZm0XURo/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-17+at+6.12.43+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="194" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_xk-WZXclhQ/UFfQEx7rYjI/AAAAAAAAeJw/hyPEZm0XURo/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-09-17+at+6.12.43+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />Women did just slightly better than the men (differences are not statistically significantly different).<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dDLsZqiKX5Y/UFfQFKHx24I/AAAAAAAAeJ4/oz3J351uZws/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-17+at+6.12.58+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dDLsZqiKX5Y/UFfQFKHx24I/AAAAAAAAeJ4/oz3J351uZws/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-17+at+6.12.58+PM.png" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Teams did well across industries. Medical devices, finance and management consulting firms were particularly hot this year.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ShS9IenOMuo/UFfQFgg1i9I/AAAAAAAAeKA/7d-jto15xgo/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-17+at+6.13.04+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ShS9IenOMuo/UFfQFgg1i9I/AAAAAAAAeKA/7d-jto15xgo/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-09-17+at+6.13.04+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />The team score was not significantly higher for those with larger teams. At the beginning I recommended teams of 3-4 people. Once teams got too large there appears to be some decline in performance, but otherwise, team size did not significantly influence the average score. A team that is too large can have difficulties with fast decision making and coordination/communication.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CiQak0D7p6w/UFfQF1Xf92I/AAAAAAAAeKI/4Ma6OcxLXbw/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-09-17+at+6.13.16+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CiQak0D7p6w/UFfQF1Xf92I/AAAAAAAAeKI/4Ma6OcxLXbw/s320/Screen+Shot+2012-09-17+at+6.13.16+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Of course all of these are correlations and do not necessarily imply causation. It may be that teams that were motivated or interesting enough to attract and find a mentor were higher quality teams or ideas to start with. However, it does indicate that for the fall, teams would be wise to try to find a mentor and not to make the team size overly large.</div><br />Finally, here's a cool photo of a set of customized, handcrafted soaps from one of the teams that is producing eco-beauty products and soaps:<br /><br /><a href="http://signup.ecobeautylab.com/?r=http://www.quora.com/EcoBeautyLab-1" target="_blank">Ecobeautylab</a><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TtG5UlYq9gw/UFgEpCcA8hI/AAAAAAAAeS4/8PsIqfbeoqk/s1600/A20sFUmCAAIatz2.jpg-large" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TtG5UlYq9gw/UFgEpCcA8hI/AAAAAAAAeS4/8PsIqfbeoqk/s320/A20sFUmCAAIatz2.jpg-large" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /></div>Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-56979426161854119902012-09-17T04:30:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.704-07:00Why Do Most Small Businesses Fail Within First 3-5 Years?Statistics show that 8 out of 10 new businesses (i.e. 80 percent) fail within the first 3-5 years. Poor management, lack of planning, insufficient capital are few of the reasons.<br /><br />Often they fail because the owners don't know anything about running a business. <br /><br />They may be experts in the TYPE of business they have, e.g., a great chef may open a restaurant, a great athlete may open a sporting goods store, a great fashion designer may open a clothing store. <br /><br />But they know nothing about running a BUSINESS. <br /><br />I find that business owners don't make it because they: <br /><br />--somehow think that passion will get them through everything, <br /><br />--listen to people who have no right to give them advice, <br /><br />--are too emotionally attached to their business, <br /><br />--try to do everything themselves <br /><br />-- they haven't yet moved from being self-employed to running a business -- because they don't know what they don't know. <br /><br />Marketing wise, most don't understand that "less IS more, when it comes to creating an ideal client profile." They market to "everyone who breaths and make no one special.&nbsp; And we as clients want to feel special.<br /><br />The bottom line is that the principal reason for failure is ...&nbsp; <br /><br />Lack of a sound business plan. It is just as much for the business planner as for the investor. <br /><br />What's the best measure to protect yourself?<br /> <br/>Completing the business planning process will convince the most important individual that a viable business vision exists for the enterprise. That individual is the owner. <br /><br />When the owner has completed a business plan, he or she will be able to pitch it with confidence to people who can help. It will be the road map to a business future that you can slide across the table to a banker, partner or investor. The owner can address it with verve because he or she owns it by having done it.<br /><br />These links provide free tools and examples on business planning as well as free counselors to assist, worldwide. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business/starting-business/how-write-business-plan" target="_blank">How To Write A Business Plan</a><br /><a href="http://www.bplans.com/sample_business_plans.php" target="_blank">Sample Business Plans</a><br /><a href="http://www.micromentor.org/" target="_blank">Micromentor</a><br />Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-88126678451699204282012-09-14T05:00:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.769-07:00Typical U.S. GovernmentThis is hilarious.... <P><P>A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in Montana when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust. <P> The driver, a young man in a Brioni® suit, Gucci® shoes, RayBan® sunglasses and YSL® tie, leaned out the window and asked the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?" <P> Bud looks at the man, who obviously is a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, why not?" <P> The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell® notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3® cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page onthe Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. <P> The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop® and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany ... <P> Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot® that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL® database through an ODBC connected Excel® spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry® and, after a few minutes, receives a response. <P> Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet® printer, turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves." <P> "That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says Bud. <P> He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car. <P> Then Bud says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?" <P> The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?" <P> "You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government", says Bud. <P> "Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?" <P> "No guessing required." answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of dollars worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about how working people make a living - or about cows, for that matter. This is a herd of sheep." <P> "Now give me back my dog." Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-54722066502684239892012-09-13T10:42:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.702-07:0011 Rules for Creating Value in the #SocialEra<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">11 Rules for Creating Value in the #SocialEra by Nilofer Merchant<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9x1yZo0auGc" width="560"></iframe> <br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was introduced to Nilofer Merchant by a colleague at Stanford's Engineering School when I was looking for a new guest speaker and mentor for my class on Technology Entrepreneurship.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />Nilofer kept my entrepreneurship class of Stanford students enthralled for a full 90+ minute class. In short, she was terrific! I asked her to come in and talk to them about marketing as the first guest speaker in E145 (Intro to Technology Entrepreneurship) for a crowd of engineers skeptical about the value of marketing in startups. By the end of her talk, she not only had given the students concrete things they could do in their own startups, she also had a line of students out the door staying after class to talk with her for longer!</span><br /><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I was thrilled to read her new book on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Rules-Creating-Value-Social-ebook/dp/B0097DM41E?tag=wwwnilofermer-20" target="_blank">Creating Value in the #SocialEra</a></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />The book opens with a NYT-style obituary to the old ideas about Traditional Strategy still taught in some business schools.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nilofer goes on to talk about how the Social Era is changing how businesses (both large and small) need to be thinking about strategy, organizing, connecting and engaging with communities. She does a masterful job of integrating all the various pieces from social media to open innovation to co-creation and collaboration that I had been seeing both in industry and in cutting-edge academic research, but typically only in isolation. Nilofer's contribution is to bring it all together to help executives and entrepreneurs to understand how these fundamental changes imply a whole new way of doing business from the ground up. My favorite analogy in the book is between 800-pound gorillas and quick, nimble gazelles. While many of us who teach and study entrepreneurship have given up on making the 800-pound gorillas more nimble and accepted a world where startups continually disrupt old industries while creating new ones, Nilofer's book outlines how even larger organizations can become more nimble and quick moving by breaking down walls and barriers, pursuing social purpose, leaving traditional strategy behind and changing the way they approach strategy in the #SocialEra.&nbsp;</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Great to have a new book to add to my Recommended Reading list for the year!</span></div></div>Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-18488669813201049832012-09-13T04:30:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.661-07:00Technology Issues For Small Business....Wake Up!You're having issues with the technology your small business has deployed and are wondering what could have gone wrong.<br /><br />The tools are not the issue. Establishing processes that are efficient and then selecting to the tools is the challenge I encounter time and again with small business.<br /><br />As a counselor I have noticed the symptoms of the technology monkey, particularly among the younger (Generation X and Y) entrepreneurs.<br /><br />There seems to be a belief that automation, the Internet and social networking can make the business succeed when in fact the real design of the enterprise itself is lacking (niche, market base, business plan, competitive analysis and financial forecasting) <br /><br />I hear from many clients who ask, "What Now?" having launched an enterprise that is going nowhere because they are driving the tools and not the car.<br /><br />I take them back to the garage, design the auto to see if it can run and then apply the wrenches retroactively if that is possible. It is usually a traumatic experience and could have been avoided with strategic and business planning before launch. <br />&nbsp; <br />Above courtesy of <a href="http://www.smalltofeds.com/" target="_blank">Kenneth Larson</a>, SCORE MentorChikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-15824647512904965872012-09-10T04:30:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.653-07:00Entrepreneur vs Business OwnerThey're almost two different animals. An entrepreneur has a heart to produce results with whatever creative challenges they have. I feel that a business owner is more profit based and has a head for business. I guess you could say it's a heart V. head thing.<br /><br />Just my opinion, but in my mind this is how I see it: <br /><br />Entrepreneur = visionary <br /><br />Business Owner = does what needs to be done <br /><br />I feel a business owner could be successful at something they don't necessarily love, whereas an Entrepreneur is always creating and pushing the boundaries <br /><br />A. ENTREPRENEUR: <br /><br />He or she possesses: <br /><br />1. An Idea <br /><br />2. A market niche <br /><br />3. The desire to control individual destiny <br /><br />4. The willingness to learn how to run an enterprise <br /><br />5. Ability to work hard. <br /><br />6. The desire to build unique entities that are individually their own <br /><br />B. BUSINESS OWNER: <br /><br />The person or persons registered on the Articles of Incorporation with the state as the rightful holders of employer and tax I.D. numbers for an enterprise when it is registered to become a business. <br /><br />DIFFERENCE: <br /><br />A may = B but not always. <br /><br />There are silent partnerships, financing arrangements, operating agreements and other circumstances whereby the entrpreneurial drive behind an enterpirse is not vested in the owner. <br /><br />Holding companies and similar corporate identities make owners removed from the entrpreneurial level and public companies sell stock making the stock holders owners in businesses. <br /><br />Warren Buffet and Berkshire Hathaway's entrenrurial niche, in fact is finding entrpreneurs and good long term investments that pay off. <br /><br />Most business owners start there businesses because they are very good at what they do! They run the business and are more technical in nature with a large leaning to opertional duties in the business as well as all getting involved in all aspects of the business from Admin, Accounts, HR, Strategice Development, Personal Dev, IT, Marketing and Sales etc <br /><br />An entrepreneur is somebody who is "opportunity obsessed". He has the ability to take the opportunity, look for recources to exploit the opportunity and most imortantly if a team is needed an entrepreneur has the ability to identify people who compliment his weaknesses with the aim to build a profitable enterprise that can be sold or harvested for a capital gain. An etrepreneur will then seek out further ventures with similar aim.<br /><br />Personally I think entrepreneurs and business owners represent two very different populations but there is some overlap (represented by an intersection if they were represented in a ven diagram). <br /><br />The big differences I've seen can be summed as:<br /><br />Business owners are focused on execution.<br />Entrepreneurship are focused on vision. <br /><br />Additionally, entrepreneurship is a way of looking at the world that is more about creation, innovation, and (re)imagination and less about P&amp;L and the operating aspects of running a business. <br /><br />There are plenty of examples of entrepreneurs who have started successful businesses but rarely do they stick around once their vision has been realized. <br /><br />Big companies are beginning to see the value which entrepreneurs can bring to a business and there is a big push in corporate America to foster Intraprenuership within big corporations. I think this trend will make great strides to blur the lines between the 2 further and make businesses more entrepreneurial. <br /><br />I guess my final comment would be that even though the two may be different in all the ways mentioned, both of them need to imbue similar aspects into their journey to really succeed - Passion, Motivation, Know their North Star, Know Why they're on that Path, be able to Grow Professionally as well as Personally and so on. So they may be differently orientated, but still need the same impetus's&nbsp;in their own individualistic way. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-69044836517127387032012-09-07T10:00:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.721-07:00Free Website For Your Small BusinessLabor Day has come and gone in the USA and Canada. For these and many other parts of the world it's "Back To Work/School" season. <P>What better way to start a new season than by starting a new venture? The soon to launch 3-day SSFB-only Buy-One, Get-One FREE Special will help folks do just that! <P> Starting Friday, September 7th at 12PM ET visitors who "Like" SiteSell Facebook get a FREE SBI! with their purchase of SBI! at it's regular annual price ($299). <P> This means when you get one custom small business website from SBI .... you'll get another one FREE. Think of the possibilities for boosting your online efforts with two websites to work with ... for the price of one. <P> To take advantage of this amazing offer simply go to this Facebook site ... <P> <a href="http://facebook.sitesell.com/freedomfire.html">SiteSell Facebook Page</a><P> After you get there "like" SSFB ... and then click through to the Special order page from Facebook. <P> Want to see what SBI can do for your online business efforts? Watch this ... <P> <a href="http://results.sitesell.com/freedomfire.html">Get Results</a><P> This snappy video introduces the notion of RESULTS and PROOF - two critically important elements lacking in every other Web-building platform. They don't advertise proof and results because they doesn't exist. <P> Only SBI! has THAT kind of backup! <P> Consider this also. To be successful in business...truly successful...you need to innovate. Innovation is important to not just keep up with the Jones's, but to get ahead and stay ahead of them. With an SBI website you have innovation built in ... AND innovation is continually added at no cost to you! That continued innovation (at no extra cost for over 10 years), sets SBI apart. <P> To see what I mean check out these tools...all of which are built into every SBI set. <P> <a href="http://tools.sitesell.com/freedomfire.html#NEWFEATURES">Website Innovation</a><P> Remember ... to take advantage of everything mentioned above AND MORE .... go here and "like" SBI, then click through to the special order page. <P> <a href="http://facebook.sitesell.com/freedomfire.html">SiteSell Facebook Page</a>Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-33464920434523110222012-09-06T05:00:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.675-07:00Simple Tool To Manage Invoices And Billing...What To Look ForWhen looking for a tool to manage invoices and billing here's some simple guidance.<br /><br />Think process first and then technology. Consider the projected future needs of your projects, what the customer demands in the way of invoice backup for services, rates and the like if you work on time and material jobs.<br /><br />&nbsp;Write a specification that details these needs and send it to&nbsp;tool vendors. Ask for competitive quotes and on-line demonstrations or trials if they are available. Select your tool carefully and let your specification drive the tool, not the other way around. <br /><br />Remember: <br /><br />1. An electronic computer software package is not a system. One cannot acquire a system by acquiring computer capability. <br /><br />2. One acquires a system by conducting systems analysis, achieving a design and processes by working with the people who will run the system. This is hard work and time consuming. Processes are improved and made more efficient by modifying user behavior not by automating it. <br /><br />3. Once system and analysis and system design are complete one chooses tools to assist in running the system. The adequacy of a computer tool is driven by the requirements of the most efficient system design. <br /><br />4. The biggest mistake implementation teams make is to believe they are buying a system when they buy a software tool or let the software drive the systems analysis process. That is like asking a mechanic to drive a wrench from New York to St. Louis. It has resulted in millions of dollars wasted and plummeting efficiency in many organizations, large and small. <br /><br />5. It is necessary to design a system and processes unique to the company to meet user requirements before going shopping for computer tools. If you do not you will be pigeon-holing your company into a COTS mentality and become a slave to the company that owns the source code. If you want anything changed it costs a big buck. <br />&nbsp; <br />Depending on the size of your business, you could use either QuickBooks (Pro, Premier, Enterprise) or Sage 50 (formerly Peachtree, Complete, Premium, Quantum). Both have most of the small business market for accounting and they offer industry specific applications (Manufacturer, Contractor, profesional services firms, etc). They both allow for invoicing clients by email straight from the accounting software.Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-66117923043951801402012-09-05T23:02:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.717-07:00New Stanford online classes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Dear students,</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We're very proud to announce 5 new Stanford classes to be offered on Venture Lab this Fall. Here is the list:<br /><ol><li style="margin-left: 15px;"><a href="http://venture-lab.org/venture" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Technology Entrepreneurship</a>, Chuck Eesley</li><li style="margin-left: 15px;"><a href="http://venture-lab.org/advanced_venture" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Start-up Boards</a>, Clint Korver</li><li style="margin-left: 15px;"><a href="http://venture-lab.org/creativity" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">A Crash Course on Creativity</a>, Tina Seelig</li><li style="margin-left: 15px;"><a href="http://venture-lab.org/education" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Designing a New Learning Environment</a>, Paul Kim</li><li style="margin-left: 15px;"><a href="http://venture-lab.org/finance" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Finance</a>, Kay Giesecke</li></ol>My technology entrepreneurship is going to be a repeat of last Spring's class. It is also an opportunity for those of you who were too busy in the Spring to take the class on a fully developed platform. Clint Korver's class on startup boards is the first in our advanced series on entrepreneurship. The class is more suitable for those of you who already have formed a team. I highly recommend it!!</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /><br />We look forward to seeing you in the next classes. Meanwhile, please spread the word to your colleagues and friends and on social networks.<br /><br />PS. Until we migrate your information to the new site, you can access the data from Spring's class on&nbsp;<a href="http://spr2012.venture-lab.org/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">spr2012.venture-lab.org</a>.</div></div>Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-15439849211723765662012-09-03T09:00:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.650-07:00We DID Build That....The Truth Behind Why Obama Hates Business And AmericaThere has been much said on Obama's statement "You Didn't Build That". Frankly I find his words very telling as to his character, understanding of business, and his suitability as our President. My reply always has been ..."We DID Build That!". <P><P>This video offers even more background on exactly why Obama hates business and America so much ... and just what kind of dangerous person actually occupies the White House (at least until November 2012). Whatch and listen closely ... it's VERY disturbing. <P><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QXEoQJ7ZMZs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-4145842187655225672012-09-03T04:30:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.689-07:00Outsourcing To India Or Anywhere...What To ConsiderOne of the things you need to consider is not just the nature of the work you're looking to outsource,&nbsp;but also the volume. There will be upfront costs both for you and a selected partner, so you have to be confident that you will have enough future revenue to justify the investment. You may want to start with the type of work that is currently your highest volume, so you can use it to sort out the logistics of doing work with your partner, then expand to other work types once you have the basic workflow sorted out.<br /><br />Outsourcing to India, or anywhere,&nbsp;can be really great and at times really frustrating too. <br /><br />Following are the things that you need to look out for: <br /><br />1. History of the company / individual <br /><br />2. Rate the company is offering (based on your budget) <br /><br />3. Experience of the outsourced vendor&nbsp;to accomplish the specific desired work, etc.<br /><br />It is always best to follow an organized&nbsp;process. Following is a simple sample process you could start with ..... <br /><br />1. Initial discussion <br /><br />2. Project requirement analysis <br /><br />3. Submission of Time and Cost estimates <br /><br />4. Negotiations and iterations (estimations and team members) <br /><br />5. Finalization and contract <br /><br />6. Introduction of Team <br /><br />During the development process&nbsp;get involved with regular communication (phone, email, written), team meetings (internat as well as joint via video conference), and a beta testing phase.&nbsp; Don't just jump right into it.&nbsp; Contact, communicate, test, verify, and make sure your expectations are clear and met.&nbsp; I'd also suggest to include agreed upon penalities in any agreement&nbsp;in the unfortunate case of unmet deliverables or performance expectations.<br /><br /><br /><br />Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-77904528156808077472012-08-30T04:45:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.742-07:00How To Incorporate A Small BusinessThe quickest and easiest way to incorporate a small business is using MyCorporation.com. There are many services like this, but I've friends who've used this one numerous times with no hitches whatsoever. They take care of all the paperwork and send it to you in a binder. <P><P> What you need to decide is what kind of corporation you want to set up. For a simple business, a Limited Liability Company is probably the best for a single owner. If you have partners, you may want to investigate a Limited Liability Partnership or an S-Corp. You probably want to shy away from a C-Corp strictly for taxation purposes unless you're planning something big like an IPO. <P> Here's a link to a comparison chart of the various incorporation entities ... <P> <a href="http://www.mycorporation.com/business-formations/incorporate.jsp?view=compare">Incorporation Comparison</a> <P> You should also read the book "Are You Ready To Incorporate?... Saving Time & Money Through Sound Business Tactics" to help you decide what to do about incorporating. <P> <i>Book Description </i>.... <P> <i>The myth</i>: Everyone knows that only big companies and rich people with lawyers incorporate! <P> <i>The facts</i>: The reality is that there are a variety of ways to incorporate which match whatever business or venture you are engaged in and incorporation is available to everyone who wants financial security and tax savings. <P> In this remarkable and comprehensive book, the Editors of Socrates provide everything you need to know about incorporation in a single volume dedicated to clarity, easy access to information, helpful hints, practical interview with experts and design principles to make information gathering simple and enjoyable. No other contemporary book contains so much – including the invaluable free CD provided with each book in which glossaries of terms, forms, checklists, special reports, interviews, discussion and more are provided.Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-50265919802820790772012-08-27T04:19:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.695-07:00How To Write A Business ProposalBusiness Proposals are built to basically address 3 key purposes. <P> 1. To attract Investment and potential investors. <P> 2. To add talent to build / translate your business plan to action. For this you need to share your vision with energetic team members who can join you in attaining the objectives. <P> 3. For self. You need to translate your thoughts to paper so that you are able to do a milestone check on the journey at various stages. <P> To get started you'll need to work through the following steps ... <P> 1. Talk with somebody who has written several successful business proposals. Ask what worked and what didn't. <P> 2. Outline a two-part proposal. The first part will describe the business opportunity and your plans to take advantage of it. The second will present financial data - tax returns, a balance sheet and a summary of your operating plan. <P> 3. Write the proposal. Limit the first part to 10 pages. Make it concise and clear. When describing the market opportunity, cite sources. <P> 4. Explain what makes you and your company different from competitors. Perhaps you have special skills and experiences. You might have a new technology. Talk about your achievements in the industry. <P> 5. Describe the segment of the market you will pursue. Discuss what you will do to take market share away from competitors. <P> 6. Identify prospective customers. Explain why you are targeting them. <P> 7. Summarize your marketing plan. Offer details, but be brief. <P> 8. Discuss any regulatory issues your company might have to deal with. <P> 9. Identify the management team. Who are the top three people in the company? Give brief biographical sketches. <P> 10. Describe your expectations regarding revenue and cash flow for the first year. Discuss how much money you think you will need to get started, how it will be used, and where you plan to obtain it. <P> I suggest you put together a power point slide presentation to use during any briefs and meetings where you'll be "selling" your proposal. Construct that presentation as follows .... <P> <i>Slide 1: Mission Statement</i><P> This is the one liner of the company that describes what it's doing. It's best here if you relate to a past success. <P> What the Investor is Thinking: "Why should I be interested in this?" <P> <i>Slide 2: Market</i><P> How big is it and how fast is it growing? That's what you want to convey. <P> What the Investor is thinking: "Can I build a billion dollar company?" <P> <i>Slide 3: Problem</i><P> How big is the customer's problem that you are solving? <P> What the Investor is thinking: "How good will my gross margins be?" <P> <i>Slide 4: Solution to the Problem</i><P> What is your company's unique solution? <P> What the Investor is thinking: "Why hasn't anybody done this before?" <P> <i>Slide 5: Team</i> <P> Who is the team, what is their past experience? <P> What the Investor is thinking: "Would I bet my childrens' future on this team?" <P> <i>Slide 6: Technology</i><P> What's your technology and why is it defensible? <P> What the Investor is thinking: "How long will it take to deliver this technology? 1 year, or 5 years? <P> <i>Slide 7: Customers</i> <P> Who is buying the product and why? <P> What the Investor is thinking: "Does the value proposition hold water?" <P> <i>Slide 8: PER CUSTOMER ECONOMICS</i> <P> <i>Slide 9: Go To Market Strategy</i><P> <i>Slide 10: Milestones</i> <P> <i>Slide 11: Financials</i> <P> <i>Slide 12: Competition</i> <P> <i>Slide 13: Financing History</i> <P> <i>Slide 14: Why This Investor</i> <P>Now you have a plan and raod map to put together a business plan that will work for you. The next step .... just do it!Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-9886293251398512622012-08-23T04:01:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.779-07:00The Worst And Best Startup IdeasWorst and best start-up ideas depends on the location and environment where you'll be starting the business. In any business initiative program, it is best that you first consider the location and the market personality before jumping into conclusion whether a business or start-up idea is worst or not. For example, if the location is populated by health buffs and health conscious individuals, then no matter how many magazines or reviews point out that exercise and workout studios is a no- no, it might just work in that area. <P> The key here is to conduct a market research and evaluation to determine the best possible business idea that would work or succeed in that particular type of environment. Now, let's say that you have a business idea in mind (e.x. high-end restaurants), you need to find or locate the market niche where this business would really flourish and develop patrons and loyal customers. <P> Like what I've said earlier, there is no specific "best or worst" business idea. Others might say that "this is a good business" this year, but after some years it would just go bankrupt and all. It is best that you stick with a business that you like and love doing. After that, everything else would follow. <P> That said ... Kenneth Larson, a volunteer counselor with SCORE and Micro Mentor the last 6 years, considers these the worst and best startup ideas in his experience.... <P> <b>WORST</b> <P> ** Franchises <BR>** Exercise Studios <BR>** High End Restaurants <BR>** Travel Agencies <BR>** Construction and Real Estate Related Enterprises <P> <b>BEST</b> <P> **On line administrative assistant <BR>** Services to the elderly- transportation, errands etc <BR>** Pet Care and Training Services <BR>** Federal government contracting to tap stimulus funding coming through 123 federal agencies in almost every field of endeavor <BR>** "GREEN " Environmental initiatives in almost every venue <BR>** Maintenance, Repair and upkeep of foreclosed properties<BR> ** Non-profit organizations for community development chasing grants <BR>** Self-Help Guides for Business <BR>** Training on all aspects of small business Management <BR>** On-line Books <P> Successful small businesses are developing enterprises in these fields through market research and business plans to deliver unique products and services - then pricing them and comparing them to the existing market, the competition and client demographics to determine feasibility before applying for financing and launching an enterprise. Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-72576072431894507332012-08-20T04:04:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.730-07:00Recommended Books On EntrepreneurshipEvery business person should be a life long learner. keep recharging the tank and be open to learning new things. With that in mind here's a recommended list of books for entrepreneurs. It's by no means an all inclusive list so feel free to recommend your own by leaving a comment. <P><P> 1)Technology Ventures: From Idea to Enterprise <P> 2) The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company By Steve Blank, Bob Dorf <P> 3) Entrepreneurship: An Innovator's Guide to Startups and Corporate Ventures by By Marc H. Meyer, Frederick G. Crane <P> 4) What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World By Tina Seeling <P> 5) Trump University Entrepreneurship 101: How to Turn Your Idea into a Money Machine by Michael Gordon <P> 6) The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber <P> 7) The Millionaire Maker's Guide to Creating a Cash Machine for Life by Loral Langemeier <P> 8) Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson <P> 9) "Effectual Entrepreneurship" by Stuart Read, Saras Sarasvathy, Nick Dew, Robert Wiltbank, Anne-Valérie Ohlsson <P> 10) Great by Choice by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen <P> 11) Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki <P> 12) The E-Myth - Michael Gerber <P> 13) 9 Lies That Are Holding Your Business Back...: And the Truth That Will Set It Free - Steve Chandler & Sam Beckford <P> 14) EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches - Dave RamsayChikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-24958594033052704802012-08-16T22:30:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.664-07:00Team Grayscale<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We've been doing a few profiles of Venture Lab teams over the past few weeks. Our terrific research assistant, Hamsa has been putting these today and I think she's been doing a great job with it. It's inspirational to me to get to hear some of the in-depth stories of the entrepreneurs and startups that were touched at least in some small way by the course.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's the story about Team Grayscale. I'm quite proud of them.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The startup culture hit India about 2-3 years ago, Parth Saxena tells</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">us. Until then, even top MBA students would generally get hired by</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">international companies, rather than start a venture on their own.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Recently, an incredible change has occurred in the mindset of Indian</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">youth, and many seek to form their own companies. However,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">opportunities such as incubators are still scarce and budding</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">entrepreneurs are not aware of what measures to take. “What is</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">required is a great network of mentors and venture-capitalists which</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">can guide young startups to move on the right path,” says Parth. This</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">is precisely the gap that Venture Lab seeks to bridge internationally.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The Grayscale team consists of two brothers, Parth and Dhruv Saxena,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and their close friend Nikhil Kapur. Parth and Nikhil, both</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">23-year-old fresh graduates, have been friends since their early</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">college days and yearned to start a company together. Their shared</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">passion for music and Parth’s experience as a guitarist in local bands</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">sparked the idea of TommyJams in early 2012. The duo noted that</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">despite the rapid growth of the Indian live music industry, venues</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">still sought event managers or personal connections to hire live</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">performance artists, which both resulted in limited choice of artists</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and higher prices for the venues. Furthermore, it limits opportunities</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">for new, budding artists who lack personal connections. Team</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Grayscale’s idea of TommyJams would provide an online platform to</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">bring together artists, venues, fans, and advertisers. Venues can</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">simply publish upcoming events and interested artists can submit a</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">portfolio to be considered for the gig. Moreover, for perhaps the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">first time, the website will provide fans an opportunity to follow</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">their favorite artists and venues. With this dream in mind, the team</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">joined Venture Lab.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Having worked on involved programming projects at multiple internships</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and competitions, the team had no lack of technical expertise. Parth</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">had extensive experience with databases and server-side interactions</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">and began working on the backend; Nikhil’s experience concerned</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">user-driven software, and he took over the front-end and the user</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">interface. Dhruv, who still attends college, was an ideal</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">point-of-contact for campus networking, and helped Parth with the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">backend in his spare time. However, the team lacked entrepreneurial</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">knowledge and an appropriate plan of action for understanding the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">customer segment. Working through Venture Lab’s course videos and</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">assignments, the team performed extensive market analysis and many</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">customer interviews. The feedback they gathered brought many useful,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">fundamental changes to their proposed product, says Parth , describing</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">their key lesson as ‘Do not assume, go out and look!’ Moreover, the</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">team joined hands with four experienced mentors from Venture Lab’s</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">extensive network and received advice through regular Skype calls.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Over the past few months, the team has been working long hours to put</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">together a fully-functional prototype, and they are getting ready to</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">launch a beta version. In preparation, Parth and Nikhil are quitting</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">their full-time jobs at Texas Instruments and Microsoft respectively.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">“We need every spare moment after the launch to market the product and</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">make it truly viral,” says Parth. “Venture Lab was one of the best</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">things that could have happened for our venture. Not only did we learn</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">so much, but it has given us so much confidence that we are chucking</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">our jobs to become full-time entrepreneurs!”</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">We, at Venture Lab, wish these new entrepreneurs the best of luck!!</span></span></div>Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-10081158174752192182012-08-16T04:47:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.637-07:00What A New Entrepreneur Needs To KnowWhat follows EVERY new entrepreneur should take to heart and embrace before going so far down the road with their business that's there's no turning backl. Heck ... even old timres who may be struggling should soak up these insights. In fact anyone who considers themselves an "Entrepreneur" will benefit. <P><P> The biggest mistakes ... <P> 1) You assume you know what folks want<BR> 2) You try to sell & you are not good at it or you hate it. <BR>3) You fail to define/understand that being an expert doesn't assure connecting with & acquiring paying customers. <P> These missteps are preventable. You can, with a few easy steps & ways of thinking get your messaging right so it does connect with & gain customers. <P> Try these steps for doing that.... <P> 1.People do things for their reason's not yours <P> If you have not done the in depth homework to see how a target audience thinks, what it cares about, & how to link what you want to what they want so they say "Hey, thats me - lets talk" ... you probably will be disappointed in your results. <P> 2. Its hard to hear folks with a background in messaging and connecting for getting results trying to tell you that. That's because your belief in your direction is so strong in you that you think everyone will agree & want to join in. You get blinded by that belief & it prevents you from being objective about how best to get followers & customers. <P> Even hearing the communication "experts" saying things like "folks just do not care about that" referring to your pet project, being so caught up in the value of your idea, you resist their expert advice. Its just too hard on you & your deep seeded beliefs, values to accept what they say. <P> 3. You just can not wish things into reality. If the audience has or sees no real buy in reason that, to them, resonates and says "that's me - that's exactly what I need to do and I am doing it" ... your message & recruiting efforts will fail. <P> There's just too many "you need to do this" messages bombarding us so its critical that you do what is suggested in this step in the way you reach out to folks. <P> 4. Looking at ourselves, our core traits and what we are really good at, we should see what we are good at & not good at and accept it. If we are not marketing types & we want our idea to connect, get the marketing type to figure out how to do that. <P> 5. Its not ego, its pragmatism that should govern how you & your strengths and weaknesses are played out in trying to make something happen. "Why go it alone when you don't have to?" Why risk failure trying to do what you know you are not good at, especially something as important as gaining willing customers?. <P> This is especially true when you want to influence people, their thoughts, manage your messaging so you do gain traction for your idea or project amongst the many different types of audiences out there. <P> Knowing precisely how to do this with differing approaches that resonate with differing target audiences is how you get to "yes, that's exactly what I need and I want to do it" from the members of the target audiences you have identified as folks who could benefit from what you offer. If you are not good at that, be brutally honest & let someone who is great at that help you by doing that part for you. <P> Failure is a learning experience but you can, especially if you want to create active acceptance/participation in something, avoid failure if you can adopt the thinking of what's been suggested here in this post. <P> And remember this very simple but useful way of thinking as you try to go gain joiners, genuine prospects, customers... <P> 1. "People do things for their reason's not yours" <P> 2. "Imagine the prospect or target audience has a sign on their forehead that says so what!" <P> Living those two axioms when charting connecting, influencing, getting supporters, getting customers goes a long way to realizing success for gaining acceptance of your idea. It goes a long way for you in getting folks to participate and willingly join in with your "vision" &, for their reasons, not yours, make it theirs as well. <P> Courtesy of Neil Licht,Chief Advisor, HereWeAre, Growing your business group callhereweare@verizon.netChikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-35183126884192302922012-08-15T00:01:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.680-07:00Recent Quora.com question<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="question row" style="clear: both; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 650px;"><div class="e_col p1 w4_5 question_text" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(192, 192, 192); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 3px; float: left; margin: 0px 0px 1px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; width: 485px;"><h1 style="color: #161f21; font-size: 20px; letter-spacing: -1px; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div id="ld_VxDDp3_1725" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="question_link" href="http://www.quora.com/Startup-Founders-and-Entrepreneurs/With-regards-to-technology-start-ups-and-serial-entrepreneurs-what-is-the-success-rate-of-start-ups-founded-by-an-entrepreneur-who-has-done-it-before-versus-that-of-a-start-up-founded-by-a-first-time-tech-entrepreneur" id="__w2_CAO3Dd1_link" routing="q://question/(704446)" style="color: #19558d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span id="ld_VxDDp3_1748" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="question_context" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span id="ld_VxDDp3_1750" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Startup Founders and Entrepreneurs</span><span class="normal" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">:</span>&nbsp;</span></span>With regards to technology start-ups and serial entrepreneurs, what is the success rate of start-ups founded by an entrepreneur who "has done it before" versus that of a start-up founded by a first time tech entrepreneur?</a></div></h1><div id="ld_VxDDp3_1726" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="row w4_5 question_details" style="clear: both; float: left; margin: 3px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; width: 485px;"><div class="inline_editor_content" style="font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">So much is made of the founder having previous success, but&nbsp; how much more successful are those companies?&nbsp; Is there a hard number that quantifies the advantage - are they 5%, 15%, or 50% more successful? Really looking for the delta between the success rate of tech start-ups overall and the rate of success rate tech start-ups founded by serial tech entrepreneurs.</div></div></div></div></div><div id="ld_VxDDp3_1727" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="row" id="__w2_pIkJrbA_answer" style="clear: both; float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 650px;"><div class="e_col w5 answer_border" id="ans1437595" style="float: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 540px;"><div class="e_col w4_5 p1 answer_text" style="border-top-color: rgb(223, 229, 231); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; float: left; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px; width: 485px;"><div id="__w2_pIkJrbA_answer_wrapper" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="answer_user" id="__w2_pIkJrbA_answer_user" style="font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 0px;"><span id="ld_VxDDp3_1753" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="user" href="http://www.quora.com/Chuck-Eesley" id="__w2_nR8WH41_link" routing="q://user/(2865)" style="color: #19558d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Chuck Eesley</a><span class="rep" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">,&nbsp;</span><span id="__w2_eQmwK0u_link" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="rep" id="__w2_eQmwK0u_sig" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">10 years in and around startups, on t...</span></span>&nbsp;<span id="ld_VxDDp3_1770" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="sig_edit" href="http://www.quora.com/Startup-Founders-and-Entrepreneurs/With-regards-to-technology-start-ups-and-serial-entrepreneurs-what-is-the-success-rate-of-start-ups-founded-by-an-entrepreneur-who-has-done-it-before-versus-that-of-a-start-up-founded-by-a-first-time-tech-entrepreneur/answer/Chuck-Eesley?__snids__=51671203#" id="__w2_BNTz54M_link" style="color: #538dc2; font-size: 0.8em; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Edit Bio</a></span></span><br /><div id="ld_VxDDp3_1754" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="answer_voters" style="color: #999999; display: block; font-size: 0.8em; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="answer_voter_callout" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><strong class="voter_count" style="color: #666666; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px;">8</strong>&nbsp;votes</span>&nbsp;by&nbsp;<span id="__w2_xE21tXv_view_all" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="user" href="http://www.quora.com/Andr%C3%A9-da-Silva-Pinto" id="__w2_TEVblFx_link" routing="q://user/(5640945)" style="color: #999999; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">André da Silva Pinto</a>,&nbsp;<a class="user" href="http://www.quora.com/Brian-Nelson-4" id="__w2_FCk1fsZ_link" routing="q://user/(2753748)" style="color: #999999; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Brian Nelson</a>,&nbsp;<a class="user" href="http://www.quora.com/David-S-Rose" id="__w2_jFOUVYe_link" routing="q://user/(304227)" style="color: #999999; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">David S. Rose</a>,&nbsp;</span><span class="view_all_span" id="__w2_xE21tXv_view_all_span" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="more_link" style="font-size: 0.8em; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">(<a href="http://www.quora.com/Startup-Founders-and-Entrepreneurs/With-regards-to-technology-start-ups-and-serial-entrepreneurs-what-is-the-success-rate-of-start-ups-founded-by-an-entrepreneur-who-has-done-it-before-versus-that-of-a-start-up-founded-by-a-first-time-tech-entrepreneur/answer/Chuck-Eesley?__snids__=51671203#" id="__w2_xE21tXv_view_all_link" style="color: #999999; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">more</a>)</span></span></span></div></div><div class="answer_content" id="__w2_pIkJrbA_answer_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div id="ld_VxDDp3_1755" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></div><div id="ld_VxDDp3_1756" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="inline_editor_content hover" id="__w2_alqdVtz_inline_editor_content" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="inline_editor_value" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It depends in part on what you mean by "successful" and what on the relationship between the prior experience and the current startup.&nbsp;<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Gompers and coauthors have a great paper addressing this and they find the following:<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />"In this paper, we address two basic questions: Is there performance persistence in entrepreneurship? And, if so, why? Our answer to the first question is yes: all else equal, a venture-capital-backed entrepreneur who succeeds in a venture (by our definition, starts a company that goes public) has a 30% chance of succeeding in his next venture. By contrast, first-time entrepreneurs have only a 21% chance of succeeding and entrepreneurs who previously failed have a 22% chance of succeeding."<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Their paper is worth a read as they have some very clever measures of market-timing skill and managerial skill to answer their second question. However, their definition of success is based only on IPOs and prior experience is only VC-backed firms, creating some success bias in their estimates. Note that a 1 in 5 chance of having an IPO is still quite remarkable.<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Paul Gompers, Anna Kovner, Josh Lerner, David Scharfstein, Performance persistence in entrepreneurship, Journal of Financial Economics, Volume 96, Issue 1, April 2010, Pages 18-32. (<a class="external_link" href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304405X09002311" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: url(http://d1vgw4v7ja2ido.cloudfront.net/-d00b84133c0b47df.gif); background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #19558d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 12px 0px 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.sciencedirect<wbr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></wbr></a></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>.com/sci...)<br /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />In a recent paper I look at a similar question, using a broader dataset of all founding attempts by MIT alumni. Instead of IPOs which are a goal of only a subset of entrepreneurs, I look at revenues as the success or performance measure. What my coauthor and I find is that the advantage of prior experience depends on how similar the current venture is to the previous one. The more dissimilar, in terms of industry or technology, the less experience helps and the more important innate talent is for performance. The empirical challenge here is that more talented entrepreneurs may be more likely to go on and found more companies, so we needed some sophisticated statistics to disentangle the impact of experience vs. innate entrepreneurial talent.<br /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Overall, revenues are 52% higher for the experienced entrepreneur and 113% higher for the experienced entrepreneur starting a firm in the same industry. Mean revenues in this sample are $328,000. So for the experienced founder, mean revenues would be $498,000. However, if the experienced founder starts a company in an unfamiliar setting then experience becomes a liability. With a very innovative technology revenues are actually 6.8% lower. If your prior experience was before the dotcom internet disruption then for the next firm your revenues are likely to be 43.8% lower. So whether experience helps or hurts very much depends on the context and how similar the current venture and industry environment is to the previous experience.<br /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />I include the citation, abstract and a bit of the text of the paper below to give more of an example of the theoretical arguments and reasons why this may be the case.<br /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Eesley and Roberts. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 6: 207–219 (2012)<br /><a class="external_link" href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=909615" rel="nofollow" style="background-image: url(http://d1vgw4v7ja2ido.cloudfront.net/-d00b84133c0b47df.gif); background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #19558d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 12px 0px 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://papers.ssrn.com/so<wbr style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></wbr></a><br />l3/pape...<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><div class="qtext_embed thumbnail" data-embed="&lt;iframe width=&quot;100%&quot; height=&quot;100%&quot; src=&quot;//www.youtube.com/embed/_p3SoeCL0cc?wmode=opaque&amp;autoplay=1&amp;autohide=1&amp;iv_load_policy=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;" data-yt-id="_p3SoeCL0cc" style="-webkit-background-size: cover; background-image: url(http://img.youtube.com/vi/_p3SoeCL0cc/hqdefault.jpg); background-position: 50% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; clear: both; cursor: pointer; height: 272px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative; width: 485px;"></div><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Abstract: We explore whether entrepreneurial performance is due to innate talent or the accumulation of entrepreneurial experience. Using a novel data set with multiple observations of founding attempts per individual, we generate a unique measure of entrepreneurial talent. In contrast to prior findings, the relative importance of experience versus talent changes with the context.<br />When the current market or technology is familiar, experience dominates. However, when the venture context is unfamiliar, talent is more important. Individuals with experience and talent handle both familiar and unfamiliar aspects and may extract more from a given level of experience. The findings advance our understanding of how the drivers of venture performance shift with the broader technological and industry environment and places limits on when experience aids performance.<br /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Overall, this ‘learning by doing’ enables experienced entrepreneurs to imprint their ventures more effectively at the outset by choosing better opportunities (Huber, 1991; Ingram and Baum, 1997; Baum and Ingram, 1998). As time goes on, they are better able to develop viable business models, raise funding, install superior strategic processes, and complete the tasks involved in setting up a new firm. Prior experience in this case allows the entrepreneur to reuse strategies, network connections, and industry-specific knowledge. With more prior founding experience, the entrepreneur has seen a wider spectrum of issues and problems during the start-up process. The greater the number of prior start-up experiences he/she has to draw from, the less likely that the decisions that need to be made in the next venture will be unexpected or unknown to the entrepreneur. While an inexperienced entrepreneur may spend valuable time and money discussing and trying out different solutions to problems that arise, the experienced entrepreneur has likely already encountered these problems and has solutions. Specifically, we propose:<br /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hypothesis 1a: An entrepreneur with more venture founding experience is more likely to found a high-performing venture.</i><br /><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></i><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />We also expect that venture experience will be particularly advantageous for focal venture performance when the entrepreneur is familiar with critical aspects of that venture. That is, when the context surrounding the new venture is more familiar to the entrepreneur and, thus, more similar to the past, learning from prior entrepreneurial experience will be of particular relevance (Argote and Ingram, 2000; Argote, Beckman, and Epple, 1990). Lessons from the past will more directly transfer to the current situation. We define familiarity as having a close acquaintance or being well known. For example, when entrepreneurs engage with familiar technologies, they are likely to face fewer surprises and less likelihood to encounter problems. There have been opportunities to work out bugs, increase predictability, and better understand customer needs related to the technology (Levinthal and March, 1993; Meyer and Roberts, 1986). Similarly, when an entrepreneur starts a firm in a familiar industry, he/she is likely to understand the competitive dynamics of the industry. He/she will already be familiar with customers, suppliers, and ways of doing business in the industry. He/she may be able to use analogies from prior experience that fit particularly well with the current venture (Gavetti, Levinthal, and Rivkin, 2005), and he/she can reuse existing relationships. When problems arise, in a more familiar context, there is a greater likelihood that they have an overlap with problems that the entrepreneur has already faced in a previous venture.<br />Even when choosing which entrepreneurial opportunity to pursue, if entrepreneurs stick to an industry or technology they are familiar with, they are more likely to identify a valuable opportunity. When the entrepreneur knows the market, customer preferences, and potential distribution or channel partners, he/she is more likely to choose a promising opportunity. In contrast, if the experienced entrepreneur strays into potential opportunities in an unknown area, it is more likely that unexpected challenges will arise or that the product will not be exactly what consumers want or a critical sales strategy or aspect of the business model will not work in the end. The experienced entrepreneur in a familiar domain has experience with a greater number of the constraints that must be satisfied for an idea to be a good business opportunity.<br />Finally, and in contrast with the benefits gained from experiences, experienced entrepreneurs may gain hubris and overconfidence along with experience (Hiller and Hambrick, 2005), making them particularly ineffective in unfamiliar contexts. For example, they may underestimate the uncertainty associated with a less familiar technology. Entrepreneurs will be less likely to benefit from their prior venture experience if their focal industry has undergone a major disruption. When the industry is disrupted, experienced entrepreneurs no longer have an understanding of industry dynamics and their experience is not likely to give them an advantage. It is then less likely that problems they encounter will be ones with which they are familiar and have a known solution from experience. Overall, we argue that entrepreneurial experience will be particularly likely to aid venture performance when the focal venture is in a context that is familiar to the entrepreneur. Both in opportunity selection and in execution, the more an experienced entrepreneur remains in a familiar context, the fewer surprises that will be encountered and the higher the likely performance of the venture.<br /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hypothesis 1b: The positive effect predicted in H1a will be stronger for ventures started under more familiar conditions.</i><br /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Talent is a second, yet less explored, explanation for the positive link between serial entrepreneurs and performance. Here we argue that a significant source of success in starting ventures is time-invariant entrepreneurial talent differences across individuals. Schumpeter (1934) was the first in the literature to suggest that entrepreneurs have skill or talent, rather than simply being bearers of risk. Since then, relatively little scholarly work has examined entrepreneurial talent. Lucas (1978) refers to managerial talent in firm formation and defines it as an ability to get more output per worker. Others similarly have defined talent as the ability to get greater entrepreneurial earnings out of a given amount of capital invested (Evans and Jovanovic, 1989). Amit, Glosten, and Muller (1990: p. 1233) define entrepreneurial talent as ‘the ability to combine tangible and intangible assets and to deploy them to meet customer needs in a manner that cannot easily be imitated.’ Others have defined talent as having a market timing and managerial component (Gompers&nbsp;<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">et al</i>., 2010). We attempt to synthesize and simplify these definitions. By entrepreneurial talent, we mean superior ability to consistently see viable entrepreneurial opportunities and effectively act upon them to generate greater venture performance.<br /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Given their superior ability, talented entrepreneurs are more likely to succeed in their initial ventures, and these successes are then likely to motivate them to found successive firms (Gompers&nbsp;<i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">et al</i>., 2010). As a result, serial entrepreneurs may form a more talented pool of individuals than the pool of all entrepreneurs. Less talented first-time entrepreneurs may fail in their initial ventures and decide not to found a subsequent firm. Alternatively, they may face difficulty in recruiting new cofounders or raising capital. This may lead to the well-known relationship between serial entrepreneurs and venture performance.<br />Innate entrepreneurial talent involves more abstract reasoning, divergent thinking, synthesizing disparate ideas, and frame-breaking behaviors. These talents allow them to identify higher quality entrepreneurial opportunities since this task requires more than simply applying prior, historical experience. Every potentially valuable entrepreneurial opportunity has some aspects that are unique or unexpected. Where merely experienced entrepreneurs might mistakenly apply prior lessons, talented entrepreneurs can more naturally think through the more novel, less familiar aspects of the venture. A new opportunity may require a business model that has not been tried before or a distribution channel that needs to be created from scratch. If the opportunity requires that new markets are created or new sales and marketing strategies be generated, then the talented entrepreneur has an advantage in being able to think more flexibly rather than reflexively applying an old strategy from a prior venture.Appropriate strategic actions may be ambiguous and unpredictable or experience may not apply when an entrepreneurial opportunity is very new, highly risky, and unfamiliar. Precisely in these conditions, experience may not apply and talented entrepreneurs will excel. Overall, these arguments lead us to propose:<br /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hypothesis 2a: An entrepreneur with more innate talent is more likely to found a high-performing venture.</i><br /><i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></i><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Entrepreneurial talent will be less advantageous when entrepreneurs encounter more familiar conditions. Talent is less of an advantage when the entrepreneur has already experienced this set of conditions and is already familiar with the appropriate strategic decisions and responses. In familiar conditions, the talented entrepreneur does not need to sort out new frameworks or work out the best commercialization choices to make. Talent is less relevant, when familiar contexts allow the selection and reuse of prior experience. In a familiar context, if decisions or problems arise that the entrepreneur has seen and solved previously, then talent is less useful because the problem is not one of generating new solutions but simply applying prior experience. The talented but inexperienced entrepreneur might waste valuable time thinking up possible commercialization choices and reinventing the wheel, while an experienced entrepreneur already knows the solution and can more quickly make decisions and move forward.<br /><br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />Correspondingly, we also expect that entrepreneurial talent will be particularly advantageous when entrepreneurs face less familiar conditions (e.g., different industry, disrupted industry, and novel technology). In these contexts, entrepreneurs must sort out appropriate strategic actions when many factors—such as market opportunities, business models, customers, and marketing channels—are ambiguous and unpredictable. Entrepreneurs with innate talent may find it easier to apply their talent toward thinking through these novel situations in which experience may simply not apply. Similar to an individual with mathematical talent who can derive an appropriate formula from first principles, talented entrepreneurs can rely less on memorized routines learned from past experience. Instead, they are more able to figure out correct strategic actions from reasoning through the appropriate choices in a new situation. They are capable of more abstract reasoning and synthesizing information. In addition, talented entrepreneurs may be more confident of their abilities when faced with unpredictability. Finally, they are more likely to engage in frame-breaking activities—such as experimentation, questioning, and observation—that are associated with divergent thinking (Dyer, Gregersen, and Christensen, 2008). Such thinking enables entrepreneurs to spot viable opportunities sooner and provide novel insights for executing them in less familiar contexts. The ability to handle the unfamiliar and unexpected results in more consistently high performance since the unfamiliar and unexpected are aspects that introduce inconsistency into performance. </div>Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-12756612539250640732012-08-14T15:00:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.640-07:00Poor Richard's Almanac For Email Marketers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://blog-cdn.aweber-static.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/thumb7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="200" src="http://blog-cdn.aweber-static.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/thumb7.jpg" /></a></div> <P><P> Ben Franklin wasn’t exactly a marketer; but he was many other things. <P> He was one of America’s founding fathers, and the dude sure was pithy with his business advice. So here we have some bits of his wisdom, passed down from his Poor Richard’s Almanacs and showing you how they can help you grow your business. <P> Here are our favorite Poor Richard-isms. Don’t market without them. <P> <a href="http://www.aweber.com/blog/email-marketing/poor-richards-almanac-for-email-marketers.htm?id=221373">Poor Richard's Almanac for Email Marketers</a> Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-27943141479779775752012-08-14T14:00:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.668-07:00How To Market Your Business With Webinars<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://blog-cdn.aweber-static.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/thumb1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="200" width="200" src="http://blog-cdn.aweber-static.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/thumb1.jpg" /></a></div><P><P> If you’ve ever been to a webinars, you’ve seen how useful they can be when it comes to delivering content to an audience. The word “webinar” is an amalgamation of the words “web” and “seminar” — basically a presentation you give to an audience over the web. <P> With clear instructions and educational webinars, people are more likely to sign up for your information, buy your product and/or stay with your business. <P> Read more about how you can use webinars to advance your business interests here .... <P> <a href="http://www.aweber.com/blog/email-marketing/how-to-market-your-business-with-webinars.htm?id=221373">How To Market Your Business With Webinars</a>Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6389163345801159412.post-9319610665637982392012-08-13T04:32:00.000-07:002012-09-28T06:23:03.776-07:00Advice For The Newbie In Direct SalesIf someone has never directly sold, then I would definitely suggest they get sales training or coaching. <P> - You need to know who exactly your target market is. <P> - How are you going to get access to them? (List, phone book,....etc) <P> - How are you going to organize your day? How many calls will you make, how will you track your calls, what will you do for follow-up. <P> - How comfortable are you on the phone? Do you have a script? <P> -How comfortable are you in presenting your products and services, do you know how to go for the close? <P> -How do you track and manage your prospects? What kind of reporting do you do (pipeline, forecast,...etc) <P> -Do you know the sales cycle for products / services you are selling? <P> These are just the basics and usually someone who has NEVER sold does not know where to start, so I would advise even if they feel comfortable to enroll in a sales training course to get the basics or get coaching. Coaching will help as it will give the person someone to work with along the way and gain feedback. <P> It is a big mistake "to try to figure it out" as you go. People who do usually get behind the 8 ball. They can't organize themselves, have a quota to hit and are not focused properly. Everyone needs some help at new things.Chikitahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16207563376987457406noreply@blogger.com